it's the mooost wonderful tiiiime of the year.

forget christmas, brother! the best time of the year has to be strawberry season. hands down.

...and just think...tomato season is just around the corner...

i'm bringing blogging back.

suffice to say i've had a lot going on lately, but all the time, things i wanted to share with you. like this ice cream cone. JUST KIDDING. i wanted the whole thing.

i've been bad at blogging, and pitiful at my trial of using no plastic the month of may, but a girl just keeps moving along, you know. getting better if possible.

getting excited about spring.

buying asparagus.

thinking of all the interesting food-related things to blog about.

i've got a lot of them.

party foul! quick cake fix.

sometimes, things don't work out how you planned. case in point: your mexican chocolate cupcakes don't come out of the pan. and you have a cinco de mayo party to attend pronto.

what to do with this edible yet unservable cake product?

how about cutting small pieces, and serving in a mini cupcake paper or petit four wrapper with dulche de leche?

yes. that would be good.

even though this was a mistake, i'd recommend the combination anyway. and i liked how they ended up being little bites - good potluck size, and not overwhelming, since the dulce de leche is so rich.

mistakes can be delicious.

many thanks to my sous chef

good news: my dear husband is getting many cooking lessons this week! bad news: it's because i'm sick and lazy. i have a allergy/cold one-two punch that's combining to make life fairly unpleasant. sorry there hasn't been much cooking around here lately, but i don't think i've made a meal for a week. wow. i have, however, been medicating my sore throat with lots of ice cream. that's good news.

trust me on this.

the budget works. okay, the budget has taken a bit of a hit this month, i'll confess. there's a week left in the month, and i've already sent out the "don't use the debit card without prior authorization, pretty please" warning to my dear husband. i'm embarrassed to admit that the grocery budget isn't looking too rosy at this point, either...i took out a larger chunk, thought i would do one big shopping trip to stock up, and ended up getting a cold and blowing money on comfort food instead. my incredibly organized, frugal shopping adventure didn't exactly materialize, but somehow the cash ended up spent. siiiigh. all this is to say: i'm no saint, but at least we've got a plan. meet the budget. this is a fictional version of what we use to keep track of our monies, because it would be really creepy if we told the internets how much we make and spend. all you have to do to make it your own is track what you spend for a month, put it in the spent column, and see how you're doing. spend more than you took in? whoops. just about right? keep tracking. under? geez, you're amazing. i update ours every day or every other day, and it just takes a second. when i want to see if we have money left at the end of the month for another tank of gas, or for a ticket to a fun event, i make changes to the "budgeted" column to "move funds around." no shame in that. the budget is not your boss. YOU'RE the boss here. as long as it stays under what i make, that's fine. we have a unique situation, as well, in that my income is steady, but my better half's is not. we just don't budget for his. we separate it out into three categories, unless another big expense has popped up: savings plan (including paying down debt), travel fund, and drum fund. your priorities might be different. very few of you need to buy new mallets all the time, i'm sure, but you get the idea. if you have more regular income, you can put things like this into the budget. i'm no financial expert, but this works for me. try it, you'll like it!

we (heart) brunch.

sunday morning brunch is the best, isn't it? you can take your time, eat something a little decadent if you like, and no one has to wake up early. that last part is my favorite. heaven knows i'll sleep in whenever given the chance.

baguette french toast with raspberry-mango sauce

i especially love brunch now that i have 4-hour practices to carbo-load for on sundays. if you can't eat much past 1:00 or so, might as well get seconds of french toast or pancakes, right? personally, i'm partial to french toast. it's easy to make with whatever bread is on hand, it's rich, but not TOO rich*, and easy to make variations. baked french toast prepared the night before is one of our favorites. what's your favorite sunday brunch food? *paula deen was making french toast with croissants and heavy cream the other day. that, my friends, is too rich.

first farmer's market of the season

hoooray! yesterday was the first outdoor market of the season. the winter market definitely has its charms, but the first outdoor market means SPRING! and spring means asparagus! and peas! and all sorts of wonderful fresh, green things we haven't seen all winter. of course, it's early, so there wasn't much produce selection yesterday. almost nothing that one couldn't have gotten at the winter market the week before, though i did see green garlic for the first time. and, like a jerk, i didn't buy any. kicking myself for that now - it smelled wonderful. ah, well...there's always next week. the gorgeous weather (i was warm walking home in a cardigan) meant there was a great turnout. much more so than the clammy weather of one of the early market days last year... ...does this mean i've been blogging here for a year? wow, looking back, i started this blog a year ago tomorrow. i have learned a LOT. i hope someone who's passed this way on their path through the internets has learned something, too.

New York food highlights

ah, new york. so many choices. so much food. so little time. here're some food highlights: union square greenmarket: not as big as i thought, but pretty wonderful! so many artisianal cheese, apples, pies, breads, lots of jam...i wished i could take something home, but we'd just arrived. oh, well. i got some maple pecan candy, which i'm now remembering i've yet to try. what's wrong with me? red bamboo: good! worth the wait? of over an hour? sure, since it's a nice neighborhood for strolling, and they take your phone number to call you when your table is close to being open. i had fake chicken parmesean, which was good, but i'd wished i'd gotten some vegetables on the side. brian loved our spring rolls, but they were a little oily for me. luckilly, it was right around the corner from our destination for the evening, the blue note, where i had a lovely manhattan. is it gauche to order a manhattan in manhattan? ess-a bagel: the concierge sent us down the wrong street on our second-to-last day (thanks a lot, pal!), but the phone book set us straight, and on our last morning, we had really good bagels. really good. confirms the hype good. hint: do NOT ask for your bagels to be toasted at ess-a bagel. they will hate you. this is new york - they don't have to be nice. bleecker street pizza: oh, yeah. the more you eat it, the better it is. one thing i was disappointed about in new york is all the plastic clam shell packaging (evidence below, though i didn't seem too sad about it when i had a few drinks in me and the clam contained cheesecake). you see a ton of ink devoted to plastic bags, then you have people eating in delis - eating in! - sitting in front of plastic containers. it's nutty to me. eating while traveling, especially for those of us with dietary restrictions, is hard enough without paying attention to what your food is being served in. new yorkers, can you let your local restaurants know we prefer paper? or - shock - dishes and silverware? the tourists will thank you. for our part, we'll try not to get our zabar's bags stuck in the subway doors. by the way, thanks for the bemused half-stares on that one, guys. that was helpful. geez.

bloomington - stop the presses!

i've received word that BLU Boy is now serving homemade ice cream. yes. indeed. i think i'm going to deserve an end-of-the week treat tomorrow, even though i took monday-wednesday off. ice cream, people! the good stuff, made with local eggs from heartland family farm. i'll report back. and also about our new york trip. which was pretty fun.

cheesecake: decidedly not sustainable in plastic clam packaging, but delicious!

start spreading the schmear

brian and i are headed to new york city very soon. whoopee! we're going to celebrate his recent (cough) milestone birthday, and i would love some recommendations for places to eat. i enjoy some spontaneity as much as the next gal, but it's still good to have an idea of the best places in a given neighborhood. the best, most reasonably-prices places. you don't want to end up some gouged sucker tourist. and good bars that you can go to in jeans and converse. ideas? must dos? we're so going to the union square greenmarket. my heart's going pitter-pat just thinking of it.

Peppermint fresh!

last night, in honor of my Irish heritage, i made a simple potato soup and soda bread from mom's recipe. mom, you never said when to put the buttermilk in, but that's all right. it's a pretty forgiving dough. i had some tense moments over the carrot chunks in the potato soup, afraid they'd end up too mushy, since the onions i was cooking them with were nearly caramelized by the time i turned them off. nope. make your chunks big enough, and cook the potatoes separately, and you should still have a little snap left in your carrot. if that's the way you like it. after dinner, in an attempt to give the mice a hint that maybe they're not so welcome in our home, i spent a few hours cleaning and boiling some water with peppermint essential oils. apparently, mice hate peppermint. i never know how much credence to place in old wisdom like this - there must be some truth to it, but maybe more to people who want to believe it. doesn't hurt, i suppose. hint: never buy a spray bottle from the dollar store. ever. i knew better, but i couldn't find one at the grocery, so i stopped next door. and my $1 peppermint oil/water spray bottle broke that very night. yeah. you get what you pay for. anyway, the house smells minty fresh now. will this drive mice out into what's supposed to be 2 days of heavy rain? we'll see.

unwanted visitors to the kitchen

aah, spring. the crocuses are blooming, the trees are budding. people are strolling around, smiling, perhaps falling in love. birds and bees are doing their thing. magic is in the air. and, as has happened around this time another year, we have discovered mice in the house. this time, they seem to be coming from behind the stove. my cooking has been drastically cut back. specifically, to buying sandwiches from bloomingfoods. the PEST-A-CATOR 2000 seems to be doing its work, however. what, you ask, is the PEST-A-CATOR 2000? well, my friend, it is a "rodent repelling aid," with the dubious claim that within 2-4 weeks, one will likely see a reduction in mice, due to "patented pulse technology" designed to annoy them enough to go take up residence in your neighbor's house. yep, you plug it in, it flashes, and you go from there. PEST-A-CATOR 2000: ON THE SCENE! whooo, boy. i'm a squeamish city girl; the last time we had mice and brian went out of town, i ended up going to a hotel at 3am, i got myself so worked up. this time (with brian, of course, going out of town again), i have been fairly brave, if i do say so myself. any tips, other than cleaning like crazy and setting up those no-kill traps? we ain't killing no mice in here. i like to imagine that they'll make a nice lunch for one of the neighborhood owls i've been hearing lately. is there anything that mice hate? other than electric pulses in your wiring system? p.s. - i know there's an ad with sliced ham at the top right now. (sigh.) the foodbuzz people are being very accomodating in letting me just promote their website, and not any of their affiliate ads, since there's a lot of food out there i don't want this blog to promote. so, just consider that if you're going to buy a ham, make it from a local producer with happy hogs, all right?

the blogger's dilemma

hi to all those hoosiers (and friends of hoosiers) who clicked over from feedme/drinkme. nice to have you! so. the plan was to find a good stretch of time time to sit down and write a long, thoughtful post about going to see michael pollan speak at butler a few weeks ago (has it been so long?). well, life has forced me to abandon that plan. look for more frequent, if shorter, blog posts in your future. but on this topic:

(that's me in the middle, bookended by my two cute companions) 0hmygosh! we met michael pollan! he signed my copy of the omnivore's dilemma! it took me over 24 hours to decipher what he wrote: "Kelley - vote with your fork! Michael Pollan." okay, mp. i kind of already do, but i'll keep it up and try to make those slipups of convenience fewer and farther between.

he spoke about in defense of food, so not much of his prepared speech was new to me, but i got a lot from the q&a session. for example: skim milk or whole? long story short: it depends. skim milk has something added to it for texture that raises cholesterol. the fat in whole milk can carry more growth hormone. what, you get the milk with no hormone added? sorry, friend. we've been selecting for hundreds of years for cattle with lots of growth hormone. what an interesting guy. worth the drive to indianapolis, even with the nasty weather coming back. thanks mari and liz for driving, and liz for the picture!

i do still cook sometimes.

thank goodness for the bread machine. i've made a lot of dense, doughy bread in my time, but the bread machine saves me from myself. the crumbly, crunchy, thick crust of bread that's actually baked in the machine tends to turn me off, but that dough function is a lifesaver. all i had to do for this lovely round of vienna bread was put the ingredients in, turn it on, and be around when the cycle was over to shape into a round (not rocket science, friends), and let it rise. now, if i could only let it rise a *little* longer. patience is a virtue i like to think i have, but not when it comes to dough. worse, i like to cut into a freshly-baked loaf right out of the oven when i ought to know better. tomorrow, a few of us are driving up to see michael pollan at speak at butler. my inner food dork is squealing! expect a report later this (very busy) week.

food for a good cause

to be honest, i probably would have skipped right by the food works by middle way house table at the winter market if these cheese crackers hadn't been so dang cute. i mean, they weren't exactly on the list. but who could resist something so fetching, and for such a great cause? since i got my first local salad greens in months, i knew right where they would go.

you might be able to make out some avocado slices down there, from my san diego trip. i had been afraid that i wouldn't be able to use them up.

that fear was turned out to be unfounded.

if you're in bloomington, and you need an event catered, don't forget about food works. we can't have sustainability when people are worrying about their very safety and survival.

happy valentine's day.

let me take a moment to thank my sweet baby, my legally-bound partner, and bestest friend for being so awesome. and, specifically, for putting up with my culinary experiments. and for not complaining when i throw together beans and rice again while running around getting ready for roller derby practice. and for being flexible about eating vegetarian at home. did i mention the awesomeness? and for washing the dishes. and making the coffee. man, am i glad the coffee is made every morning. even on weekends, he gets up and makes it. oh, and he also makes me drinks and brings me beers when i ask. i appreciate that. and takes out the trash. that's my guy!

sunnier climes

yes, it's 22 degrees outside, and it's supposed to snow, but i still have clementines.

yes, it was a successful trip to san diego. oooh, these little clementines are sweet like candy. and too few left.

i had to go through my pint of strawberries quickly, but it wasn't much of a chore.

i was extremely wary of these, but one sniff took me over the edge. they were a little harder than your perfect june strawberry, but still worth every bite.

now i have avocadoes that are close to ripening, and a few meyer lemons. anyone have any bright ideas about meyer lemons? i don't think i've ever had one before.

thanks, coronado farmer's market! afterward, i had just enough time to walk to the other side of the island.

not a bad business trip.

california cuisine

i'm headed to san diego next week for work, but if the "business center" at the hotel isn't too busy, i should be able to check in with you and let you know how i'm eating down there. i'm ready for some citrus! and avocadoes! and mexican food! and 60-degree weather! etc.! until then, i'm off to chocolate fest to work the bleeding heartland rollergirls booth for a little while. come by and get a kiss from a rollergirl!

quick links

notmartha points us to homemade samoas. yes, please! the new york times has a great short article on the issues surrounding meat production and consumption in america. the long and short of it - eat less, and if you do, eat pastured, please. just got an e-mail saying that a bill in indiana was just withdrawn that would have made it illegal to label milk as hormone-free. just in case you forgot - the people making the most money from food aren't interested your well-being. that's why we give a little of our money to local folks. give them a little more power. speaking of which! bloomingtonians, don't forget about the winter market on saturday. and go early! harvest lodge (the tamale people) are supposed to have soup, but you know it's going to go fast.

barbecue baked tofu

sometimes, it seems like dinner is a lot more trouble than it's worth. tonight was not one of those nights - everything came together very easily, fast, and to rave reviews. i even drizzled a little extra sauce around brian's plate (not pictured) to be fancy. oh yeah. i don't bake tofu very often. next time i'll wait until i have something else in the oven at the same time to save energy (i'm thinking about roasted cauliflower...mmm), but this was a bit of a last-minute change to the game plan. so was adding barbecue sauce (on sale) to the baking liquid. yum. the thicker consistency worked really well. my time-saving trick? instead of cooking the broccoli separately and serving on top of the tofu and potatoes, just add your chopped broc to the cooking potatoes about 5 minutes before they're done cooking. mash all together. voila. no muss, no fuss. no mashed potato guilt. it's a wonderful thing.

happy birthday to me.

cupcakes from BLU Boy

(the birthday girl didn't have time to bake due to roller derby practice. she was okay with this.)

FARM bloomington

we finally made it to the newest addition to the local eating scene, FARM bloomington, with some friends on saturday night. and we weren't the only ones, i'll tell you. that place was snapping and popping! according to a dining companion who was facing the room (and not the divider, like me), plenty of prominent bloomington people were in attendance. looks like this town was ready for the FARM. good thing. it's occupying huge space in what must be a high-rent location, and therefore a gamble even for the food industry.

this place isn't lacking in concept. there's a little market and cafe in front, a compartmentalized dining room, a bar area, and i guess eventually a downstairs area. and an alley window for service is supposed to be available sometime soon. all these zones, if you will, seem to have different menus. the dining room itself has a front area, a curtained table for larger groups, a table made of limestone that's separated from everything else...and right next to the bathrooms...and a glassed-in back area that's supposed to be more quiet? potentially romantic? so there's a lot going on.

okay, so. the food. in the dining room, there was one vegetarian plate offered. the server offered it vegan, which was a nice touch. let's hear it for the vegans! i'm not exactly sure what everything was that i ate, but it included black rice, purple yam with toasted coconut, some kind of greens, tofu, haricots, roasted cherry tomatoes, a wheat berry dish, and...something else with little beans. and some other roasted vegetables.

the black rice was described as "sticky," but it didn't seem too sticky to me. just kind of there. the purple yam mash was a pleasant surprise, since i'm not much of one for yams. toasted coconut really set it off. the wheat berry salad was very tasty. the cherry tomatoes weren't presented very well, what with the skin sliding off, but the other roasted vegetables were very good. the rice and beans at the bottom of the plate didn't leave much of an impression. green beans? not my favorite, but that's no one's fault but mine. the server had said that there would be cellophane noodles, but i guess they needed those for something else? the tofu was...just a square of tofu with sesame seeds and a negligible sauce. too little to taste. the only descriptor i could come up with at the time was "grainy." between the four of us, we shared three desserts, so i got most of this pie to myself while brian enjoyed half a piece of chocolate cake. the pie had a thick, biscuity crust, which wasn't what i expected, but wasn't bad, either. do people out there eat whipped cream with apple pie ala mode? if you do, friend, good on you, but it seems a *little* over the top. like buttering the bun on your bacon burger. my meal matched my impression of the restaurant; a lot going on at once, and a little confusing. i hate to say it, but without a soup or salad, i went home a little hungry. there were a lot of items on that plate, but not much of anything. the cherry tomatoes should give you a sense of scale. lesson learned; get a starter. i wish there had been a vegetarian option that didn't seem like a concession. i didn't feel that a lot of thought and care went into my meal; it was more like everything in the kitchen that wasn't meat was carefully portioned onto a plate. in a town like bloomington, that just doesn't cut it. vegetarians and vegans aren't second-class gastronomes. my vegetarian friend highly recommended ordering from the tapas menu - the pizzas are supposed to be great. maybe next time we have a little cash injection or some celebrating to do, we'll drop in on the bar and see what's happening over there. and i can't wait for the alley window to open. i won't base my only opinion on a restaurant based on one meal on a busy saturday night just after opening, but it seems like there's some fine tuning to do over there. your impressions?

argh!

why is everything in the fridge suddenly freezing the last few days? in sympathy with what's happening outside? i keep turning it down a little at a time, and the eggs were frozen this morning. frozen eggs. NOT suitable for separating. any wisdom out there? EDIT: as of 1/23, the problem seems to have resolved itself. huh.

budgetary caution

after some neccessary fiscal belt-cinching (due to new circumstances directly related to a certain someone's student loans), our grocery budget has been reduced by $10 a week. this reasonable reduction shouldn't, in theory, be tough, right? wow. i guess one adjusts very quickly to being able to spend more, and slowly to being able to spend less, because i'm struggling with our new budgetary constraints. having been so used to the finer things and all. ha ha. since i'm not willing to stop eating as much local and organic food as possible, including lots of fresh produce (not so local this time of year), it looks like i'll just have to spend more time planning shopping and meal plans. let it not be said that i complained about having a bloomingfoods a block away from work, but, let's face it. it's easy to fall back on the convenience and literally pay the price. that's a price we can't afford. and, while we're at it, am i the only one who seems to run out of expensive staples (olive oil, laundry soap, etc.,) all at once? and when money seems to be tight anyway? but, yes. you can eat local and organic on a budget. even with a healthy and active social life outside your kitchen. i'm convinced of it.

my little pretties

thanks to my parents, who bought me these stoneware ramekins (merry christmas to me!), i'm all set to make my long-awaited small food fantasties come true. tonight? baked eggs. with piecrust. because i was just winging it, friends. just winging it. and i discovered recently, with my matching christmas present (and stocking stuffer - yeah, i made out this year), that piecrust is really simple to make. and i love it. inordinately. ugly, homemade, whole wheat piecrust.

(larger than lifesize)

oh, my new ramekins! so pretty and blue. lesson learned, though: allow for carryover cooking when baking eggs in ramekins. the yolks were just perfect - oozing and lovely without being runny - when they got to the table, and a few minutes later, they were just short of hard.

p.s. like the new look?

that sure won't help biodiversity

the fda finds that food from cloned animals is a-okay to sell and eat. all the more reason to support local farmers who raise heirloom or rare breeds.

i tried to like it.

there's just something about the texture of certain wintry vegetables that i can barely stomach - sweet potatoes, cooked carrots, most squash - but i'm trying. see the above? gnocchi with roasted carrots and turnips. the carrots and turnips were delicious in theory, all sweet and caramelized, and i ate a lot of them. i did!

...but i couldn't finish the job.

these carrots and parsnips were originally intended for a soup i like from fresh from the vegetarian slow cooker. if it's pureed, it's not a problem.

any irresistably tasty root vegetable soup recipes out there?

p.s. - yes, those are pre-packaged gnocchi. i ought to make my own and freeze them, but i'm still getting used to this roller-derby-4-or-5-nights-a-week thing. a girl's gotta eat. and feed her husband. often at different times.

what's cooking?

we're not doing so well over here on the local food front - it's january, after all, and we're between farmer's markets until the last weekend of the month. at that point, i'll be lining up for kale. delicious kale! until that point, my stores of local provisions have dwindled to:

1. several heads of garlic
2. 2 blue potatoes
3. bay leaves, oregano, and basil

...and between my ambivalence toward root vegetables and everyone moping around grumbling about diets, i haven't felt completely inspired lately. it's 60 degrees outside, too (!), so comfort food seems a little much. luckily for us here in bloomington, we have another Dine Local Night coming up, january 16th.*

what have YOU been making lately that you love?

my dear husband bought me the veganomicon for christmas, and though many of the recipes call for ingredients we don't normally have around the house, i'll have some fun stuff to try out this week. when we're not eating fake chicken patties and tater tots.

oh, come on. they're organic tater tots! and they were on sale! don't look at me like that. no one here ever claimed to be a saint.

*details!

head to one of the below restaurants on thursday, january 17th, and ask for the local special. 5% of proceeds will go to the Local Growers Guild.

Bloomingfoods

Bloomington Bagel Company

FARM Bloomington (oooh, we're so going there for the opening/my birthday)

Laughing Planet

Limestone Grille

New Day Meadery (a little googling tells me they'll be at the winter market at harmony school, too.)

Nick's English Hut (still holding out for my mellencamp sighting!)

Oliver Winery

One World Enterprises (i.e., lennie's. pizza express? that would be awesome.)

Restaurant Tallent

Sahara Mart

Trulli Flatbread

Upland Brewing

happy new year!

whew! we got back at about 2am from a week-plus vacation in portland. what a great time. my first meal when we touched down was a stack of huckleberry pancakes from genie's - you can't get that in the midwest. here, you also don't get the hordes of hipsters lining up for the bloody marys, but i never had a problem with those.

brian's sister megan bakes at crema, a delicious (and popular) coffee shop and bakery, and we found ourselves popping in for a bite and a coffee in the morning. i only get a cappuccino when we come home for visits due to extreme foam snootiness borne in my barista experience.

manchego and mushroom biscuit. SO GOOD.

i love vacation schedule - wake up whenever, get coffee, sit and read the paper, then go about your business. it seems so civilized. we also made a short trip down to eugene, where we tried some micro brews from the new ninkasi brewery. i can heartily recommend their ipa. the next morning, we took a little walk down memory lane by heading for cafe siena, by the university of oregon campus. mexican and american breakfast food. ah, the memories. brian and i both got the "scramble #2," with eggs, rice, mushrooms, spinach, cheese...yum. but that's a LOT of food.

before leaving town, we trekked down to marche provisions, a new endeavour from the marche empire. i have a little history with said empire, having worked at the marche cafe when i first moved to eugene. we nabbed a macaroon at the cafe (oooh, the macaroons. why didn't i buy ten? i don't even like macaroons except for these), then went downstairs to check out "provisions." wow. i'm impressed. prepared soups and ice cream made in-house, imported tasty treats, a salad bar, all kinds of salt by the ounce, a cheese and charcuterie counter - i could have cried. everything looked so fantastic. (sigh.)

we loved seeing our friends and family so much, and wished we could have seen everyone just a little more. next time! hey, why don't you come visit, anyways?

happy new year to everyone out there! i resolve to try a lot of new things this year, so stay tuned.

don't judge a fruit by its cover.

so, a few days ago, i saw ugli fruit in the produce section at bloomingfoods and just couldn't help myself. they're supposed to be ugly, but, come on! this one was kind of cute! sure, it was flat on one side, as if it had been dropped, but the color was a brilliant, jamaican green. most of the ones i've seen on the internets, on the other hand, are a sickly kind of yellow. jamaicans call it "hoo-glee," americans call it "ugly," and i like to call it "ooogly." it's a citrus hybrid, and really, not as bad as my initial googling left me to believe. most called it "like a grapefruit, but not as good."

make your life a little easier by removing the membrane before digging in. it is JUICY, and messy, and the membrane is too tough to eat. i don't mind the membrane of, say, an orange, (mmm, fiber!) but nothing doing in this case.

so, hey, if you come across one in the winter, give it a try. no, it didn't make me want to sing and do a happy interpretive ugli dance, but it's not bad at all. just beware the juice. beware.

you might have noticed that i have some advertisements on the top of the page now from the nice people over at foodbuzz. they're nice enough to sponsor the almost sustainable kitchen. this was a long time coming because i was wary about keeping control over the ads - this blog doesn't promote most of the food being advertised out there - but i think we worked it out, and i'm glad they want to support our little niche here. if you see an ad that bugs you, email or comment to let me know.

happy holidays out there! keep it safe, and eat well!

comment away

hey, did you know that blogger made it easier for those of you without blogger accounts to leave comments? try it, i dare you! feel free to really let loose. or, why not read this new nyt article by michael pollan and make a comment on that?

powering through!

whew! as of friday, i had two christmas presents purchased. as of today, i have all but one. internet shopping - with so many choices, sometimes you've got to just power through. the one present i don't have is probably the most important of all: my 4-year-old niece. alas, this is a joint venture entered into with my oldest brother, the one inevitably slips out the door on christmas eve to wrap up his shopping. not this year, bro! just wrapped up my giving by sending $10 to the UN World Food Programme via Menu for Hope. what's menu for hope? well, they get a bunch of food bloggers together to put up delectable prizes to raffle off. each donation equals an entry. thanks, smitten kitchen, for the donation and the heads up. yes, i will put my name in the hat for some cookies. you bet i will. if you like raffles and food, and dislike hunger, take a look.

jiminy christmas!

ack, help, what happened? it's been a week since i blogged? actually, i do know what happened. i've been very engaged in this other, very time-consuming hobby. "what time consuming hobby, kelley? do tell! we're just on pins and needles out here." why, thanks for asking. i just joined the bleeding heartland rollergirls. "um, what? roller derby?" sure! it's all the rage. "are you still going to blog and stuff?" of course! having this blog, working an interesting and fulfilling job, and doing roller derby makes me feel like a very interesting and well-rounded human. anyways, let's catch up. check out mary's comment on the super-easy bread recipe from the new york times. she subbed whole wheat flour with no problems. i'm a little floored that this could possibly be so simple. thanks, mary! christine set me straight on FARM bloomington (not to be confused with one of our portland favorites, the farm). the long and short of it: there's a coffee counter and gifty market open now, and the kitchen opens soon. i'm sure there's something else i forgot, but off to bed.

local reminder: FARM Bloomington is opening soon

the website says it's opening tomorrow, but you know how restaurant openings can be. still, i have some library books to return tomorrow morning, so maybe i'll buzz by and see if the alley window is open for business. it's not clear exactly which services of the operation will be up and running tomorrow. by the looks of the website, this is an ambitious (and, to be honest, confusing) project. if anyone has a report, let me know. this morning we had a beautifully simple and delicious breakfast: french toast with sauteed granny smith apples. the apples weren't local - we're way past the local supply this year, with the bad april freeze killing so many early blossoms. this meal a simple process: soak your french toast well, cook it quickly, then set in a 350 oven for 8 minutes or so. while your toast is baking, saute thinly-sliced and peeled apples with a little butter and a sprinkle of sugar until soft and floppy. apples and toast should be done about the same time. serve apples over french toast with a drizzle of warm maple syrup. thick-cut bread works really well, and if you have a day-old loaf of challah at your disposal, by all means. use it. mmmmmm. you could always saute the apples (one per serving) the night before, place them in a pan, layer bread on top, pour custard over the top, and keep covered overnight in the fridge for baked french toast in the morning. mmmmm again.

more information on the musgrave orchard market

hi friends, yes, i'm guilty of mild neglect toward the blog of late. i've taken up a kind of time-consuming hobby which you'll hear about soon, but i've been cooking and would love to tell you all about it. until then, here's an e-mail from christine at slow food about the musgrave orchard december market. i probably won't make it this week (darn you hobbies!), but here's the skinny: ---------------- Good Morning Folks, Don’t know if you are aware of this, but there is a December Winter Farmers Market on Saturdays from 10:30-2:30 at Musgrave Orchard and Cider Mill. www.musgraveorchard.com I don’t have a list of vendors (it’s on the small side) but it includes Teresa Birtles (Heartland Family Farm), Randy Stout (Melody Acres), Steve Spencer (aka the Mushroom Man – Homestead Growers) and Andy and Amy Hamilton (Musgrave) so that’s vegetables, greens, eggs, mushrooms, and more! Good way to get your local fix until the Winter Market opens at Harmony in January! Cheers, C.

stuffed full of stuffing

man, blogging about food after thanksgiving seems like overkill, doesn't it? i have you all had a weekend as relaxing as mine. may your brussels sprouts be firm, and your hearts be light.

john, i'm looking forward to coming over for the tomato soup my niece promised me.

"i'm concerned."

planning the making of your thanksgiving dinner is one thing. executing that plan is another. tonight, i was led astray by:

1. drinks with work people,

2. napping after said drinks,

3. bad (incomplete) instructions for roasting chestnuts.

good thing i didn't put a time on dinner tomorrrow, right? chestnuts can be properly roasted tomorrow. dough is rising, and the bread can be made tomorrow.

yikes. i'm going to be busy.

if worse comes to worse, at least i remembered to pick up dessert.

i need bread.

you thought that no-knead bread was easy. (i didn't, because i don't have the proper baking vessel.) well, look here at this recipe in today's nyt. i'm making a loaf or two tonight and will report back. no, really, i promise! food blogging will occur! just you watch.

solar sun chips?

frito-lay making sustainable chips?

From coast to coast, more companies are thinking about how much fossil fuel they use and ways to conserve energy. Venture capital money is also pouring into fledgling green technology. Only a few years ago, Andy Walker, a government engineer, pleaded with companies to tackle the problems but got blank stares. “Now, my phone is ringing off the hook,” said Mr. Walker, who works at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the Department of Energy in Colorado.

great! call me when the bags are biodegradable!

beans and rice - extra nice.

the grocery budget is spent for the week. good thing we LIKE beans and rice. (sigh.) where does it all go? oh, yeah. cheese. newsflash: bloomingfoods west has butter from graham farms now from just down the road in elnora. i'll have to try that soon. it's a little amazing and disturbing how quickly we go through butter in this house. i suppose, though, if you're vegetarian, you get a little more saturated fat allowance. yes? i'll pretend you said yes. look in the bottom of the cheese cooler.

a thousand times no.

tonight i made a trip down to the old supermarket to cash in some coins and see what was on sale in the "natural foods" section. not much tempted me. it's strange to walk around a conventional grocery store and be hard-pressed to find anything that you'd feel strongly about purchasing and eating. i got an endangered species chocolate bar, (and in case you're wondering, yes, i WOULD like some of those chocolate-covered pretzels for christmas) some goldfish crackers (a favorite of SOMEONE in the house), and a jug of vinegar. and, i'm sorry to say, i came across this. um, is this new? is it a midwest thing? because i swear with my hand to heaven - i have never seen such a thing. "ropes?" i can't imagine.

keeping it simple

this weekend, it's all about comfort food, since my poor sweetie has been directed to stay home with a mild case of pneumonia. tomato soup and toast. appple crisp. lots of water. for another 48 hours or so, that guy gets whatever he wants, sustainable or not. i'm taking good care of him, leslie! the farmer's market is really dwindling - probably half the vendors were there this morning compared to two weeks ago. next week is the last week for the potato guy, and i imagine there will be plenty others who don't make it to the end of the month. crunchy chicken is doing another local eating challenge for thanksgiving, and i wonder how much of our meal i'll be able to get. i'm not particularly attached to any aspect of the thanksgiving meal, and brian only expects stuffing. that's lucky. all i have put away is a few pounds of potatoes, a couple cups of corn, two cubes of pesto, garlic to last to the new year (got some more today), chestnuts, apples, and maybe a cup of raspberries left. hmm. let's hope the weather stays nice enough that we don't lose too many more vendors at next week's market. now, i think i need to pat my husband on the head and ask if he needs water.

so long, and thanks for all the rutabagas.

lolo over at veganyumyum has the most endearing post about rutabagas up today. so endearing, in fact, that i resolved to pick up a rutabaga the next time i came across one. can you imagine? maybe i'll mash them with potatoes, like i currently do with turnips. i don't know about this soup recipe, though, since it calls for sweet potatoes. deep, dark vegetarian confession: i don't care for a lot of winter vegetables. sweet potatoes don't thrill me at all. most winter squash? i eat around it. cooked carrots, even? yecch. tonight, we had acorn squash as a bit of a departure, and after my resiquite "i'll try it" bites, i ate around it. maybe i'd like it deep fried. has anyone deep fried winter squash? butternut nuggets?

bloomingtonians: local apple alert!

i've just been told that the westside bloomingfoods, which has been devoid of local apples of late, will be receiving two bushels of winesaps before or around noon. and that's it for local apples for the season, at least at the westside store. if you get there before 2 or so, leave some for me! update: at 1:30, no apples. bummer. but they did get local eggs in, which i was very glad to see after missing the market on saturday (sad face). update: at 2:00 on wednesday, they were out! i bought a few pounds, ate one, and didn't go nuts for it. so we'll keep it at a few pounds for now. we still have that half-peck of black twig to get us to december.

peak oil: bummer.

did anyone else attend a step it up! action this saturday? i got to the bloomington event a little later in the day because of a morning commitment, and it was fairly sparsely attended at that point. i bet more people were around when rep. hill was supposed to show up a couple hours prior. let's hope, anyway. i sat in on a couple of discussions and was grilled about how portland pays for its highly-touted public transportation systems. (is my brother bill out there? you would have been a hit at this thing.) dave rollo, from the bloomington city council, talked about peak oil and bummed us all out. here's the long and short of it: we're probably going to run out of oil. when? no one knows exactly, because lots of oil-rich countries would prefer to not tell us how much they have. (wonder why?) there are no nice liquid alternatives. current political and economic interests are not particularly interested in raising the issue. right now i can hear this echo in my head of sunday morning talking heads saying, we're completely dependent on foreign oil, and it actually means something. we're in trouble, friends. when gas runs out, the supermarkets go empty. because we truck most of our food more than 1000 miles. sound like another good reason to support local food systems? or to store food over the winter? i don't mean to sound alarmist, by any means. sorry. but while that "liberal media" tells you that global warming and peak oil are contested theories, most credible experts would advise you otherwise. bummer. conventional agriculture uses incredible amounts of petroleum for oil to run mechanized operations. it's also used for fertilizer. mmm, who wants petrochemicals for dinner? ( okay, we can all agree that we don't want to think TOO much about eating what's used for organic fertilizer, but still.) how can we step off this ca-razy merry-go-round before we're forced off by the chaos of food scarcity? community supported agriculture? more farmer's markets? move to amish country? permaculture? reduce our consumption of petroleum by leaps and bounds? a chicken in every backyard, and an aerogarden in every kitchen?

one million pounds of beef recalled.

yikes. i wonder how many cows make up a million pounds of beef? now it's all going to be thrown away. sad.

too much candy, not enough plants

sooooo, no trick-or-treaters came to our house on halloween. none, at least, before 7:30, when i left. that was not only disapointing, but left me with this bowl full of candy. all alone with the candy, actually, because brian went out of town early wednesday. yikes. needless to say - i'll need to do a little extra exercise this weekend. no cooking of consequence has happened since the husband's been out of town. i keep kind of strange hours when he's gone. for instance, tonight, i (ahem, ate candy when i got home from work) and had a fried egg and beans around 9. is there much better, though, then a pasture-raised, local, fresh, organic fried egg? i've been buying from rhodes family farm lately, and they've been great, though there are some other great "happy chicken" egg sellers at the market. ooh, newsflash for bloomingtonians: there will be a december market at musgrave orchard. details forthcoming. that means we'll only have the first 3 or so weeks of january market-less.

happy halloween!

i was so gratified to see michael pollan's quote in the new york times today. despite everything, i feel it's my duty as an american with a front porch to hand out individually-wrapped candy to all comers. “I well remember my disgust whenever someone offered me a homemade brownie or, worst of all, an apple. Halloween is the high holy day of high fructose corn syrup. And if we can keep it to one or two such days, why not?” Michael Pollan, journalist and author, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” hooray for candy!

tell businesses you want green options

i have this tendency to get indignant about certain aspects of services and products i receive or pay for and to say, "i'm going to write a letter!" once in a while, if it's worth it, i do. if you're like me and you don't like confrontation, the concerned letter is a great way to express your desire for positive change. the below is a letter i'm about to send to a local pizza restaurant. names redacted to give the business time to respond. i'll post the response with the real, google-able name. --- October 26, 2007 [my personal information] [owner and address] Dear Owner, I'm a great fan of [redacted]. For a time, my husband and I had a standing weekly date there with friends, and we looked forward to sharing our typical [special]. However, as time goes on, I've become more and more concerned about the environmental impact of your business. The waste created by the current practice is unreasonable and, for me, untenable as a customer. There are several ways that you can reduce your unrecyclable waste and save money at the same time: Offer wrapped straws to customers. Save time, money and plastic by asking servers to refrain from placing unwrapped straws in drinks. It's a small thing that, multiplied hundreds of times daily, can add up quickly. Portion salad dressings individually, directly onto salads or into reusable containers. When ceramic or metal sauce cups are affordable and readily available, there's no reason to use disposables for dine-in orders. Replace all Styrofoam products. When I ordered [redacted] delivery for the first time, I was shocked to see that an order of bread sticks came in Styrofoam when a simple paper bag or a cardboard box would have sufficed. I've sometimes had uncomfortable dealings with servers who make it clear that Styrofoam is the preferred material for take-out boxes. Pre-cut sheets of recyclable aluminum foil are cost-effective for pizza slices and sandwiches. Until [redacted] makes an effort to use more sustainable packaging and reduce waste, I'll choose to take my business elsewhere. Pizza Express takes sustainability seriously, and I choose to support that. Choosing to take measures to become more sustainable and reduce unnecessary waste and only help you and your business in the long run in our progressive community. I hope to hear positive news back from you so that I can bring out-of-town guests again and suggest [redacted] as a meeting place with friends. Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely, [Me] --- i'll let you know how this works. i've only done this with one other local business, and they replaced their Syrofoam products for soup, so i kind of don't want to jinx the magic. i will tell you who they are, however. Bloomington Bagel Company! they're great! go get some shmear!

this can be complicated.

let's say that i want to contribute to a food drive. it is the season, after all. i have a budget of $10 for food goods to donate. what's more helpful for my community and humanity: to buy a few quality, organic goods, or to buy a lot of conventional foods? feed more people or think about the greater good, i.e., land stewartship? 10 cans of organic beans (if they're on sale) or 30 cans of campbell's soup? 3 jars of local apple butter? does that even figure in the equation? help! in other news, i just made an enchilada casserole and served it with sauteed mushrooms. brian is washing the dishes. my life is pretty good. thanks, life.

bloomington local food panel discussion

thanks to christine for passing this on. i'll be there! Local Food, Eating with Values – Panel Discussion The Green Sanctuary Task Force on Global Climate Change of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington is hosting a panel discussion entitled "Local Food, Eating with Values". The discussion will take place on Sunday, October 28 from 6:15 – 7:45 pm in the Meeting Room of the UU Church, 2120 North Fee Lane. The expert panel will compare sustainable models of agriculture to the agri-industrial model, discuss the benefits of eating locally and provide advice on how to buy local food through out the year. Through the discussion, panelists will help attendees answer Michael Pollan’s important question from his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, "What should we have for dinner?". Attendees will have the opportunity to join in the discussion with 45 minutes dedicated to a question/answer session. The panelists are Marti Crouch, Christine Barbour and Teresa Birtles. · Marti Crouch is a consultant on relationships between biotechnology, agriculture and the environment. She received her Ph.D. in plant developmental biology from Yale University and taught courses at IU on many aspects of botany. · Christine Barbour teaches political science at IU and is a food writer and photographer. She is co-director of Slow Food Bloomington. · Teresa Birtles, with her three daughters, grows fruits, vegetables, herbs, eggs and cut flowers for sale at Market, area restaurants, grocery stores and a CSA (community supported agriculture) group. She is an active member of the Local Growers Guild, Slow Food Bloomington and the Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market Advisory Council. The Green Sanctuary Task Force on Global Climate Change promotes mindful, earth-centered living in an effort to encourage individuals and institutions to take positive steps toward reducing their carbon emissions. For more information contact Marcia Veldman at (812) 988-4956 or meadowlk@bloomington.in.us.

step it up!

hey! what are you doing november third? oh, you're going to a step it up! action, too? that's cool. you know what's NOT cool? global warming. total opposite of cool. maybe i'll see you there.

anderson orchard

somehow, i convinced my loving and dear husband to drive to mooresville with me to go to anderson orchard on a sunday morning. little did he know that he was about to be coerced into manual labor. little did i know that he takes to the thrill of the u-pick hunt!

thanks to liz for tipping me off that raspberries are still around. they will be next weekend too, i'm sure. it's not supposed to freeze this week. so we got our apples (half a peck of cameos: delicious! half a peck of black twig: haven't tried), chestnuts, pumpkins for jack o' lanterns, raspberries for CHEAP, and a little bag of candy corn for brian. and a bottle of wine. but that was on the way home.

how to freeze raspberries:

do so as soon as possible. pick out the your best and brightest specimens. mushy is no good. neither is under-ripe. gently set your winners in a single layer on a cookie sheet or something with a lip. reactive metal might not be your best bet. place berries in freezer overnight. the internets tell me of something called a "quick freeze shelf." if you have that, use it! if you live in a student rental, plain freeze is fine. place frozen berries in a freezer bag or some such. to use: hey, you didn't wash those berries yet! just wash them now. for dessert last night, during a break in the pumpkin carving, we had the pumpkin bread pudding from smitten kitchen. so so easy and so good.

squeezably soft

there's a loaf of Sara Lee wheat bread that's been sitting uneaten in the kitchen at the office for probably two months or so. not one slice has been taken out. no signs of mold. i gave it a little squeeze today, and it bounced back like the champion of food engineering it is. yeeeaccch.

apples, pumpkins, and (maybe) chestnuts

the leaves are finally starting to turn. in south central indiana, i think that means it's time for a short road trip this weekend, and i have just the place to go all picked out. get it? picked out? ha ha? i wasn't able to get to a u-pick this summer, but you can bet i'm ready to get at those apples. does anyone have much experience keeping apples over winter? will a box in my house be cold enough for them? we keep it almost as cold as a root cellar - between 60 and 65 degrees. speaking of which - our blog compatriot crunchy chicken is challenging people to keep their thermostats low this winter. want to take part? we will, but not really by choice: we can't afford to turn it up high, and we can't afford to let the pipes freeze. let's hope there are chestnuts ready at the orchard. i had a chestnut polenta at tallent that whet my appetite.

experiments

late weekday nights and sunday afternoons are probably my favorite time to cook - no one's waiting on the result. i'm usually alone and feel free to try a new, complicated ice cream recipe just because i have the ingredients on hand. or, on sunday afternoons, there's time to stretch out your day's timeline to being around to punch down and shape dough 2, 3, or more times. sometimes cooking seems like a chore, to be sure, but when you have the time and inclination it's a special pleasure. when you have a cocktail and music and fresh ingredients, even an epic failure (barring personal injury and burning the house down) is a nice way to spend an evening. tonight, i'm making a quiche with a scratch dough for the first time i can remember. maybe i should have followed a recipe, but instead i googled around and triangulated a kind of recipe that includes whole wheat flour, white pastry flour, and vegetable shortening. at first, things did not go well. my food processor couldn't handle the volume. my rolling skills are underdeveloped. it starting puffing up and emitting moisture in the oven. oh, geez. i poked some holes and let it cook. upon removal, i picked off a piece that didn't look like it was structurally necessary and took a bite. "wow, i'm good," i thought for a moment. and then, i realized that i'd forgotten to add salt. whoops! ah, well, it's still edible, i hope. we'll see how it all comes out in the end. i blanched and sauteed some mixed greens (mustard, kale, chard) with garlic and cooked some potatoes in the oil that was left. with plenty of cheddar cheese, it ought to be fine. wish me luck. i'm ordering the pie for thanksgiving from bloomingfoods. don't worry. and don't be afraid to experiment. p.s. - speaking of mixing alcohol and pastry... (via notmartha) p.p.s. - deb over at smitten kitchen blogged about a quiche crust nightmare tonight. she's working at a much higher level than me for sure, so her failure might be my nearly-resounding success. i mean, i was picking unsalted crust bits out of the pan 10 minutes ago. come on.

cooking re-commences!

so it seems i didn't really cook for almost two weeks. yikes! well, i made up for it this weekend. aside from freezing local corn and pesto from the last of my garden basil (inspired to "put things up" by plenty), meals were actually produced.

tofu cubes ala deborah madison

gorgeous late-season tomatoes. salad greens were back in profusion in the market this weekend (yay!) so we got a last gasp at salad with cherry tomatos. it hit the spot.

potato-pepper soup, in chunked form. i left the skins on the potatoes and peeled the peppers. it turned out pret-ty smooth aside from the few chunks i left on purpose. potato-pepper soup after a puree, plus pesto and a grilled cheese sandwich. mmm. bread from blue dog bakery in louisville. HIGHLY recommended, especially to my bloomington readers who need a good artisian bread fix.

pizza again?

i was just casually thinking that it'd been a long time since i've cooked a real meal. then i looked back at my calendar and realized that brian and i have not sat down to a homecooked dinner since monday. last monday. the 1st. that's nutty. and what's for dinner tonight? pizza for me. something to eat in the car for brian. this is not sustainable! the budget, my friends, is all out of whack. since we had to change our bank account numbers, the accounting system is way behind on our actual spending. i think it's time to take a deep breath, sit down, and figure out what we've spent over the last month, then move on. maybe we'll have some extra cash for the bloomingfoods truckload sale this weekend. that would be awesome.

home to the land of sweet vegetarian home cooking

it's good to be home. it's my choice to be vegetarian, and i know i shouldn't expect too much out of conference food, but yeesh. a buffet is like a minefield. you get a meal with green beans, mashed potatoes, rolls, corn, salad, fried chicken, pasta salad and pie, and you really have to rule out green beans (possible ham), mashed potatoes (possible chicken stock), the protein of course, and usually pie (possible lard). today our lunch was caesar salad with chicken and shrimp. my vegetarian selection was - wait for it - romaine lettuce and croutons. and a roll. and i opted out of dessert, which was a cheap cheesecake square. gelatin city. sorry - i just felt like complaining, and it's really not very professional to kvetch to your colleagues from minnesota. or whoever you happen to be having lunch with. now it's time to hang out with my poor, sick, neglected husband.

i'm alive!

it's supposed to be 94 today in louisville, i'm still alive, and be forewarned for your next trip: they pour bourbon with a free hand here.

putting on the ritz

tonight, we're planning to finally have our big dinner out in celebration of brian's finishing his doctoral coursework. it's been a rough week, so this will be a nice end to it. suffice to say that not much has gone smoothly while trying to get back to normal after brian's bag was stolen. dinner is at tallent unless the chef's special vegetable preparation is roasted beets or something. but it's not beet season, is it? when you don't eat something, you don't pay much attention. the early fall menu is here. i'm torn. do i start with the arugula salad or the pumpkin gnocchi? i suppose that will depend on the vegetarian entree. i'm so excited! i'll be going to louisville tomorrow afternoon. should be taking a work laptop with me, so i'll try to update from "the road," but i'm not sure how much choice i'll have for food at a conference. wish me luck! trust me - when you're a vegetarian at this kind of thing, you need it.

october rules in bloomington.

friends, we have quite a month ahead of us. somehow, a whole summer's worth of concerts and social events landed in our area in the next 30 days or so, and i'm going to louisville for four days for a conference. me, a conference! i get my own hotel room (a fancy one, at that), and a per diem and vendors keep sending me e-mails to invite me to drink cocktails at their private pitches/receptions. never have i had so many offers for free wine and cheese. no blogging tomorrow because we'll be at a concert. in louisville (finally, yay!). right now i'm going to make dinner/lunches for tomorrow. yes, it's 9:30. i guess i'm just fashionable like that. it'll be my first attempt at cooking fresh edamame, which i was pleased to see at the farmer's market. is it too crazy to have edamame and tofu in the same dish? there wasn't any produce marked local at the store tonight, so edamame and shitakes from the market is what we have. i also have this book, which is giving me some glazing ideas. mm, tofu glaze. p.s. i'd be glad to hear any tips for louisville sights for my free time. food tips especially. i'm not sure how much driving i'll want to do, but i'll be downtown, steering clear of this strip mall gone wild.

mini-review: grub.

Grub is a great little book for anyone feeling their way to a more sustainable way of eating and cooking, (like me!), those curious kittens interested in learning what the big deal with organics and local food is all of the sudden, or for those who need a little boost in the brain to remember why they're bothering in the first place. it's very digestible (ha ha), and makes good, solid points without much fussing over them. co-author anna lappe may be best-known as being frances moore lappe's daughter, and she does a good job of creating her own voice while not trying to deny her family's place in the sustainable eating movement throughout the last 30-40 years. one of my favorite bits was an "interlude: cheat sheet for the cocktail party" - so you can bone up on why organic is better when a friendly acquaintance tells you that organics are a racket and a rip-off: 10. no more mouthfuls of additives 9. worry less about consuming food that may make you sick 8. opt out of being a guinea pig for genetically modified foods 7. miss out on hydraulic fluid in your burger (that'll get 'em!) 6. get a nutritional bang for your hard-earned buck 5-1 are good, too, and probably available at your local library. next on my reading list is plenty, which just came in from the library. this one's too popular to renew, so i'd better get to it. p.s. about half of grub is recipes, but they didn't thrill me. sorry co-author. 9,